Air conditioning systems in harsh environments, such as automotive, industrial trucking, or heavy equipment environments, may periodically experience high pressure conditions in the compressor and/or evaporator that could potentially damage air conditioning system components. Usually, these high pressure problems are discovered via diagnostic tools only after the air conditioning system has stopped operating due to the excessive pressure. However, breakdowns resulting from high pressure often require extensive repair, such as replacement of the condensor, evaporator, dryer, compressor and hoses. These repairs are both expensive and time-consuming, requiring extensive down time. Further, high pressure damage to the air conditioning system may cause freon to escape into the environment, which is undesirable due to freon's known detrimental effects on humans and the ozone layer.
Although there are devices that monitor the temperature of air conditioning systems during operation, there are currently no known online devices that monitor pressure during system operation. As a result, there is currently no known device that can provide early detection and warning of potentially damaging high pressure conditions.
There is a need for an online device that monitors the pressure in an air conditioning system during system operation and provides an early warning signal of potentially damaging pressures so that maintenance work can be performed on the system before a more serious system failure occurs.